On that afternoon, in a thick forest outside Qingyin City, someone come upon two dead bodies. It soon brings to the attention of the city ruler Ming Gongren, a country warrior with level two breath power.

For a homicide case like this, the ruler is supposed to put an effort to deal with it. Oddly, after taking a look at the bodies, Ming Gongren seems unconcerned at all and simply tells his subordinates, “Just bury them, and keep this between yourselves.”

Another day of firewood chopping and water drawing. It only takes Li Xing four hours to finish this day’s work. Again he returns to that out-of-sight corner of the yard and spends the rest of the time practicing on breaking through his muscular meridians.

This becomes Li Xing’s daily routine - day after day of repet.i.tive yet fulfilling work and practice. Soon 10 days pa.s.s, and on each of them Li Xing spent two hours of his daytime working and eight hours practicing, while at night, he spent at least 10 hours focusing on practicing. His efforts paid off. After just 10 days Li Xing is close to breaking through all his muscular meridians.

And right in the midnight of the tenth day, Li Xing hears a huge sound thundering inside his body. All the muscular meridians have been opened up and broken through with his breath essence surging from the capillaries to the dermal meridians, then all the way to the muscular meridians, and eventually back to the capillary in a complete cycle.

The successful circulation of blood essence at least doubles Li Xing power. From now on, each full circulation of blood essence gives him extra strength.  

Although the power growth is miniscule every time, it is building up day by day, and this fills Li Xing with confidence.

“Now that I have reached level two blood power, it’s time to move on to break through the sinewy meridians!” Li Xing is intent to press on.

The past practicing experience leads Li Xing to locate his sinewy meridians without a hitch. However, like what happened the last time, bout after bout of unburnable pain and itch return right when he starts bringing his blood essence through the sinewy meridians.

“It didn’t work. Maybe I need to use the bead again.” Li Xing decides to stop for the day.

And it’s on this day that he has his first good night of sleep since all the practicing began.

The next morning Li Xing is woken up by a loud swearing. Putting on his robe in a hurry, he scuttles out of the stone cottage, only to see a dozen or so burly men barging into the Purple Bamboo Forest, each with a machete in their hand.

The bamboo trees were planted by Li Ziran many years back and have already grown into a lush grove. Purple bamboo has a quite st.u.r.dy texture and a natural fragrance, which makes it a rare strain in the bamboo family.

Xiaoxiu rushes forward and stands in front of the men, refusing to let them pa.s.s. With a challenging look, she lashes out at them, “You cannot cut down the trees!”

Hearing this, a tall, thin man with skew eyes and raised eyebrows turns his look at Xiaoxiu. Grinning and with a menacing voice, he said, “Young Master Jie is having his house renovated and he needs fresh bamboo to make chairs. How dare you insolent girl stop us? If you keep standing in the way, I will let you taste the consequences!”

His words make Xiaoxiu s.h.i.+ver. The Young Master Jie he was referring to is Li Jie, the son of Li Ziran’s elder brother, Li Ying who is the head of the Li family in Three Cavalries Garden with a high place and level two breath power.

Like father, like son. Li Jie has without question long been self-willed and aggrieved in Three Cavalries Garden. A man with a hot temper and cruel nature, he has had a lot of servants beaten to death, so many people are terrified of him.

As she tries to force back her tears in terror, Xiaoxiu still refuses to back down, “You can’t. These trees were planted by Second Elder Master. You can’t cut them down…” Wiping away her tears, the girl keeps begging.

The man with skew eyes becomes impatient and stares at the girl viciously, “How dare you little giglet! Get out of my way!” With that, he reaches out his hand and tries to grab Xiaoxiu.

The man figures on one hand he can scare Xiaoxiu off so that they can go on and cut down the trees as Yong Master Jie ordered, and on the other, he can take advantage of the girl as the lecher is aiming for her chest.  

Faced with a man with level one blood power, there is now way for an untrained girl like Xiaoxiu to get away. With a scream, she is immediately forced to step back.

In the nick of time, a cold, thunderous voice roars, “Stop!”

There comes a grim-faced Li Xing. One step after another, he comes near to the man with skew eyes.